Abbot
Videos
Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the head of an independent monastery for men in various Western Christian traditions. The name is derived from abba, the Aramaic form of the Hebrew ab, and me
St. Dominic of Silos enthroned as abbot (Hispano-Flemish Gothic 15th century)
Coptic icon of Saint Pachomius, the founder of cenobitic monasticism
Carving of Saint Benedict of Nursia, holding an abbot's crozier and his Rule for Monasteries (Münsterschwarzach, Germany)
Thomas Schoen, abbot of Bornem Abbey
Rule of Saint Benedict
Videos
The Rule of Saint Benedict is a book of precepts written in Latin c. 530 by St. Benedict of Nursia for monks living communally under the authority of an abbot.
Abbot
…sometimes over several, each of which had its own abbot as well. Saint John Cassian speaks of an abbot of the Thebaid who had 500 monks under him. By the Rule of St Benedict, which, until the Cluniac reforms, was the norm in the West, the abbot has jurisdiction over only one community. The rule, as was inevitable, was subject…
The oldest copy of the Rule of Saint Benedict, from the 8th century (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Hatton 48, fols. 6v–7r)
Saint Benedict writing the rules. Painting (1926) by Hermann Nigg (1849–1928).
Saint Benedict delivering his rule to the monks of his order, Monastery of St. Gilles, Nimes, France, 1129
Laborare est Orare (To Work is to Pray). This 1862 painting by John Rogers Herbert depicts monks at work in the fields.